


Vaguely Good

by Curlsandcollege



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Crests (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Established Relationship, Experiments, F/M, Fatherhood, Fluff, Mentioned Lysithea von Ordelia, Post canon, Pregnancy, Protective Felix, White Magic, post azure moon, quick medical mention of blood, that old faerghus repression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:40:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27358165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curlsandcollege/pseuds/Curlsandcollege
Summary: "When Felix thought of the kind of father he wanted to be his initial thought was not like his own.That wasn’t quite true.  Reality was more complex."Felix gets a bit overprotective after watching Linhardt run some experiments on a pregnant Annette. It has something to do with double crests in the same body, not that Felix totally understands it or even wants to. But when Annette mentions that she thinks he'll be a good father, he's not quite sure what to do with that information.What does he know about being a good father?
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 27
Kudos: 100
Collections: That Old Faerghus Repression





	Vaguely Good

**Author's Note:**

> This, right here, is a man who is gooey for his wife and don't you forget that.

Felix refused to hover.  
  
Whatever was happening in his sitting room was between Annette and Linhardt. He’d hardly understood a word that passed between them since Linhardt arrived unannounced that morning with a satchel full of books and about twenty sharp magical instruments that he assured the both of them wouldn’t hurt as he unpacked them into their sitting room.  
  
Felix stared coldly in disbelief at the back of his green head as Linhardt chuckled and said quietly under his breath, “Won’t hurt me a bit” 

Over breakfast he’d demanded Annette’s day and she’d traded it for whatever materials he _allegedly_ smuggled out of Garreg Mach for her. Hypothetically, of course. Seeing Felix’s sharp look of disapproval Annette softened and told him not to worry, that this was a fair trade that they’d discussed through their letters, and frankly she was too tired and uncomfortable these days to sit in on hours long meetings.  
  
Her lower back hurt her near constantly nowadays, and her already perilous balance was even worse off. Felix didn’t like watching Annette try to climb stairs or pull books or even get up from her seat- each motion gave him heart palpitations.  
  
He was supposed to tolerate this for another four months? Unthinkable. Pregnancy was going to kill _him_.  
  
And he didn’t trust Linhardt as far as he could throw him. Annette declared them friends and colleagues and welcomed him into their private sitting room to do… something magical. The possibilities made Felix’s skin itch. 

Felix gave Annette’s apologies to their advisors and conducted the day’s business as efficiently as he ever had, making decisions quickly and deferring the more complex issues to be handled by their respective experts.  
  


He practically sprinted back to his rooms without breaking for lunch. Not because he was lingering or hovering or didn’t trust Annette. No. He needed to change if he was to take his afternoon training. That was all. 

Annette’s laughter greeted him as he opened the door. Normally he felt a sense of relief at the privacy his chambers offered. Here he could just be himself, as sharp or soft as he felt in the moment. The Duke’s chambers were the only place he didn’t have to act like a Duke.  
  
But the sight that met him made every nerve on his body light up and his muscles spring into action.  
  
Annette was sitting in her chemise, and only her chemise, as Linhardt actually _drew blood_ from her arm. 

  
“Are you okay?” Felix asked urgently.  
  
“Ugh no, I hate this. It never gets easier.” Linhardt scoffed, carrying the syringe full of his _pregnant wife’s blood_ over to the side table which was absolutely covered in magical mechanical nonsense.  
  
Felix huffed out a frustrated breath, “Annette are you okay?”  
  
She smiled as if she did not see the absurdity of what was going on and patted the seat next to her, “Yup! Are you all done? We were going to ask for something to eat soon while the magic takes hold. You should join us.”  
  
Felix sputtered, “The magic?”  
  
Linhardt’s incredible ability to _not_ read a room once again reared its ugly head as he prattled, “Yes, your wife is an excellent and cooperative opportunity. It’s not often we see the natural occurrence of a body holding two separate crests at once and I have a highly important and urgent project that requires a clear understanding of those interactions.”  
  
Felix cut him off, still not understanding a word of what was going on but stuck on a strange detail, “Two crests?”  
  
Linhardt didn’t turn from the desk but continued, “Yes, well we can assume based on your own likelihood. Not that it’s guaranteed, but Fraldarius is a remarkably easy crest to pass on. The minor Fraldarius crests typically carry about a seventy five percent chance of inheritance, and major crests do seem to dramatically increase those chances in any crest though we don’t have hard numbers. I’m running the experiments on the assumption that your child will indeed have at least a minor Fraldarius crest. I’ve not had any instances of a minor crestbearer having a child with a major crestbearer in my research- it’s quite rare given…”  
  
Felix cut him off again, realizing that this explanation could take all day and frankly he truly did not care about his future child’s crest _especially_ when it apparently made Annette an appealing research subject, “I’m not really interested in why, is Annette safe?”  
  
Annette sighed, “Yes Felix, I’m fine. I wouldn’t agree to this if it weren't completely safe.”  
  
Felix surveyed the room, still not entirely sure what _this_ was, but resolved to trust that Annette would not put herself or their child at risk even for the sake of a pile of moldy books and letters that seemed more like kindling to him. He was smart enough and had enough self preservation instincts to not voice that thought out loud. They were worth more than gold to her, he understood that much. 

“Ahh, well now we’ll wait.” Lindhardt came over and cast a small heal spell, closing the small wound on Annette’s arm before relaxing in an upholstered chair, “Annette I hope you won’t mind but I already read through Tomas’ letters to Cornelia for my own research so I marked a few that will pertain well to your own study, but I will present them in their entirety minus a few that I need to hold onto.”  
  
Felix dropped his head back and shut his eyes for a moment, resolving to let the two of them discuss without interruption until lunch arrived. Let Annette handle him. 

* * *

Linhardt retired to his own room after lunch, giving a small peek to the mess he left in their sitting room while mumbling something about being back in a few hours.  
  
Annette dressed again, thankfully, and curled up in an armchair eagerly reading her reward. A picture of domesticity, her belly more prominent when she sat down though the parchment obscured nearly everything. Felix had long ago learned his lesson about Annette’s priorities when it came to new books, and he did not want to interrupt her but he felt far too concerned about being totally in the dark.  
  
He circled the room twice, feeling his hackles rise as he caught a whiff of the magic. He arranged some personal effects on a side table telling himself over and over that Annette had a strong sense of self preservation. That she was good at standing up to Linhardt. That everything was fine.  
  
“Annette, what is… All of this?” Felix asked as calmly as he could. He tried hard to stop short of accusing her of anything as he asked.  
  
Annette’s eyes peeked over the parchment, scanning gently to his face.  
  
“Oh it’s… Um… Well it’s kind of a secret.” She bit her lip in consideration as Felix attempted to process her refusal.  
  
“I know you said it’s safe, and I trust you, but I just can’t…” he frustratedly pointed in the direction of Linhardt’s experiments. “Is it so secret you need to keep it from me?” He finally said, sitting next to her. He tried to focus on Annette’s face, her long hair, her blue eyes, anything but the ominously humming machines.  
  
Annette grabbed for his hand and placed a gentle kiss to his knuckles when the silence lingered, “You’re worried,” she commented, filling in his thought.  
  
It’s easier to feel when Annette does it for him, with him. Felix nodded in relief. What did he do, before someone understood him?  
  
“It’s for Lysithea. She’s sick, Linhardt is trying to fix her. He might… He thinks… I’m useful to him, he’s trying to understand how crests might interact with each other.”  
  


Felix stared at his wife as she spoke impossible words, “Is she pregnant?”  
  
Annette shook her head, “No she’s… something is wrong with her crest. Crests. Two. I don’t know how, just that they’re not natural. So… I want to help.”  
  
Two crests? Felix wasn’t a crest scholar but that felt impossible. But thinking about everything he knew about Lysithea she absolutely hated asking for help. So if she was dragging Linhardt into this, Annette into this, then it must be real or at least serious.  
  
“I didn’t know.” He said finally, his words not fully capturing his confusion.  
  
Annette’s faced furrowed with seriousness, “Nobody does. And hopefully, he’ll succeed and nobody will ever have to.” 

Felix sighed for a moment. How did everyone miss that? How would they not know? He wasn’t the most observant person in the world, but hey, Lysithea was kind of his friend right? At least by the end of the war. They were cut from similar cloth, both competitive and blunt, they got along fine. How could he not know about her?  
  
“I’m glad we can help I guess.” He mumbled, still trying to wrap his head around what was just revealed to him. Great, now he could be worried for Lysithea too.  
  
“I know you’re concerned about the experiments but I promise, it’s just about the mix of crested blood. Linhardt theorized I’d be very sick when I got pregnant, and that hasn’t come to pass so-”  
  
“You couldn’t eat for weeks Annette” Felix interjected. Why would Linhardt assume Annette would get sick? Did he think she wasn’t strong? She was tough as nails. He should kick his ass on her behalf, just because she was too nice to do it for herself.  
  
Felix puffed up at his thoughts, outwardly understanding that he was fantasizing about violence and that it was not becoming of a Duke to treat his guests that way. Even if said guest was experimenting on his _wife_ .  
  
“I just had normal morning sickness. It’s not like… Look Felix I appreciate you caring about me. You know I do.”  
  
Felix scoffed, “I care about you more than anyone Annette.”  
  
“I know.” She paused for a moment, in a rare breath of thoughtfulness as if she couldn’t quite think of the right words to say. Words came easily to Annette, they tumbled out of her mouth faster than she could control them and yet she always managed to find just the right ones. It was rare for her to be cautious in this way.  
  
She reached for him, beckoning him closer, wrapping her arms around his torso and tucking her head under his chin. “I love you. It’s stuff like this that makes me think you’re going to be a great father. But please, please try not to be this overprotective all the time. Let me put others first sometimes. The tests made me a little uncomfortable, but they don’t hurt the baby and they might just save Lysithea’s life. Please.” 

Felix nodded, wrapping his arms around her, resting his chin more firmly on her head. His comfortable silence an agreement to her words- She was appealing to a fundamental value they shared, knowing he’d never disagree to discomfort for the sake of others. Especially his friends.  
  
But as they embraced in a picture of domestic contentment, his mind wandered. A _great_ father? She thought he was going to be a great father?  
  
What did either of them know about great fathers? Even good ones? 

When Felix thought of the kind of father he wanted to be his initial thought was _not like his own_ .  
  
It wasn’t quite true. Reality was more complex.  
  
Rodrigue was an accomplished man and a good Duke. He simply held his duty and his morality in far higher regard than his own family. The loss of a treasured son to Rodrigue was an unfortunate but necessary sacrifice and that reaction took Rodrigue from being a hero, a towering beacon of what Felix wanted to emulate as he grew, into a warning.  
  


The Rodrigue of Felix’s adolescence was stubborn, unbending. A man who could not stop to mourn, to regret a death if it was _good_ in his own estimation.  
  
The Rodrigue of Felix’s adulthood hardly spared his son a thought- too absorbed with the war, with Dimitri, and then gone.

  
But the Rodrigue of Felix’s childhood wasn’t a bad father per se. He was keenly aware that Felix lacked a mother. That Felix was a softer breed of child, one who was far more likely to run for help than stubbornly claw his way out of a situation.  
  
The Rodrigue of Felix’s childhood healed his scrapes and made him feel safe. He congratulated Felix for every black eye, every skinned knee, every training injury.  
  
Training was a disaster at first. Children in Faerghus started swordplay as young as three. Felix didn’t understand why a wooden sword suddenly stopped being something he played with for fun and started to be the center of his days. 

Felix hated training as a child, the irony never truly lost on him as he grew. He was small and not particularly strong. He hated the feeling of his wooden sword connecting with another person, anything solid at all. The resistance scared him and he’d react to every critique of _follow through_ by dropping his sword all together. He hated getting hit even more. Glenn told him to stop being a baby, to learn to dodge if he didn’t like being hit.  
  
He’d run to his father when it was all over, desperate for approval that Glenn refused to hand over easily.  
  
_You are becoming stronger every day Felix. I want you to try your best on the training grounds, I will be here to patch you up._  
  
That reassurance helped him grow to love swords, to appreciate training for what it was. He trained for Glenn’s approval once he became decent, but those first few hazy years, the progress stemmed from the safety Rodrigue ensured. 

Felix tightened his arms around Annette as he considered this, feeling a gross shudder of realization fall over his limbs.  
  
His voice rumbled through his chest as he felt himself ask, “How hard is it to learn a basic heal spell?” 

Annette hummed in thought, “Not too hard if you understand the basics of spellcraft.” 

“Do you think you could teach me?” He asked softly, already feeling a pull of dread at the thought of needing to work through spell equations. Faith functioned differently, he’d heard Annette complain about it enough.  
  
Annette dropped her arms and looked up into his eyes with a small smile crossing her face. “Yes, of course I can. Why the sudden interest?”  
  
Felix laid his hand gently on the swell of her stomach, “I just… It would probably be useful, soon.” 

Annette’s eyes filled with tears, spilling over unashamed as she gasped out, “Oh. Felix.”  
  


He wasn’t sure what he was meant to do at her reaction, but he tried his best to console her, rubbing small circles on her back uselessly. 

  
“Don’t cry, I didn’t want you to cry it’s… It’s nothing.”  
  
“No I just… Felix you wouldn’t learn for a _war_ but you’ll learn for our child?”  
  
Which was true. He’d had basic faith magic seminars on his schedule more than once but he’d always skipped in favor of more training. He’d barely gotten the two reason magic spells he did have under his belt with how little time he was willing to devote to the magical arts.  
  


“It was useful, growing up. I… Protection for a child is not always slaying bandits. I think… I might need some new techniques.” 

  
Felix didn’t know what would make him a great father, but this was a start.

**Author's Note:**

> "It's not going to hurt me" is a joke my doctor made at EVERY checkup I ever had growing up. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed.


End file.
